Fermilab Theft Probe Continuing

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Batavia is increasing security around a storage building after the recent theft of radioactive copper planks.

Aurora police, the U.S. Department of Energy, Du Page County sheriff`s police and Fermilab officials are continuing to investigate the theft.

The 11 planks that were stolen were once used in the Tevatron, the federal lab`s 4-mile-long particle accelerator used to filter and study high- energy particles. Fermilab officials do not know exactly when the planks were taken.

The radiation in one of the planks, which measures 2 inches by 6 inches by 5 feet, was ``at a level of activity such that somebody working within a foot of the bar for 40 hours would pick up the level of radiation allowed in a year,`` said Fermilab spokeswoman Barbara Lach.

Radiation levels in the other 10 planks, which measure 2 inches by 2 inches by 8 feet, are much lower, she said.

Aurora police discovered the theft Nov. 9, when four men returned to the scrap-metal company where they had sold the radioactive copper a month earlier. Recognizing the four as those who had previously sold him radioactive material, the proprietor called police.

The four fled as officers arrived. Police were able to catch one of the men, Roger Schoolfield, 31, of 10 Grant St., North Aurora.

He was charged with misdemeanor theft by possession and released on bond. Further charges are being considered, said Aurora Police Sgt. Ron Martin.

The proprietor of S&S Metal Recyclers Inc., 821 N. Russell Ave., had put the planks in storage after a distributor rejected them because of their radioactivity, Martin said.

Whoever broke into the Fermilab storage building had to get through two fences, one topped with barbed wire, and break into the building, Lach said.